Saturday, July 23, 2011

86. He Shoots Me Straight

Matthew 4:17


Sin is a liar. The urge within you to sin lies to you every single day. Let’s face it: You have a magnetic pull toward the wrong thing. Sometimes you flat-out want to do what’s wrong. You want to do that easy thing that leads to a quick payout but in the end only gives you hurt, isolation and distance between you and the Lord. In short, you want to sin. You do. You actually like it, right? It sucks to admit that; but at the same time, it feels good to admit it too, right? Sin tells you that what you’re about to do is natural. It tells you that this thing you’re about to do won’t hurt anyone. It says everyone does it. It’s not that big of a deal. It will make you feel better about yourself. You deserve it. You’ll feel happy as soon as you do it. But you know better than that. You know these are all lies. You know because you’ve already been down this road before and you know how lonely and sad it makes you feel to do this thing again. You want to know something awesome about Jesus? He respects you enough to be honest with you about yourself. His first sermon went like this: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” That word we’ve translated, ‘repent’ literally means, “change your mind.” Jesus’ first message to a hurting world was, change your mind about what you think this world can give you. Change your mind about what you think sin can do for you. Change your mind about what a life with God is like. Sin is a liar, but Jesus wasn’t afraid to shoot us straight.

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